Pasta preparation

ABSTRACT

A pasta which has a firm texture upon cooking is prepared by forming a pasta dough in a form of a sheet or a pasta shape, coating the dough with a mixture of egg white in liquid form and an edible oil and then heating the coated dough to coagulate, dry and bind the coating to the dough.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of pasta.

It is very desirable to have a pasta which has a firm texture and thisdepends on the amount of water absorbed during processing. Conventionalmethods which are used to reduce the water absorption of pasta havecertain disadvantages and such methods include:

a) use of egg products and other protein materials--relatively largeamounts needed;

b) use of emulsifiers--not natural products;

c) use of fibre materials--do not give a good texture;

d) use of thick pasta--does not give the desired shape and appearance;

e) acidic water blanching and use of acidic sauce --gives a brittlepasta texture and a poor eating quality; and

f) use of a viscous sauce--does not give the desired consistency andappearance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

We have found, surprisingly, that by coating the pasta with a mixture ofegg white and edible oil, we can not provide not only a retorted orsterilised pasta with a firm texture but also provide an uncooked pastathat can be cooked in a microwave oven, or be baked or boiled forconsumption starting from cold or warm water without disintegration ofthe structure or texture of the pasta.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a process for thepreparation of a pasta which comprises forming an uncooked, partiallycooked or precooked dough which may be in the form of a dough sheet or apasta shape, coating the dough with a mixture of egg white and an edibleoil, and then heating to coagulate, dry and bind the coating.

The coated pasta may be dried or partially or retorted

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The dough sheet be formed from uncooked dough by extrusion, sheeting, orsheeting/laminating. The dough which is coated may be:

a) a partially cooked or precooked dough sheet,

b) in the form of dehydrated pasta shapes made by extrusion or extrusioncooking of uncooked dough followed by dehydrating, or

c) in the form of dehydrated pasta shapes made by slitting and cuttingan uncooked dough sheet followed by dehydrating.

The amount of the mixture of egg white and edible oil coated onto thedough may be from 1 to 25%, preferably from 3 to 15% and especially from5 to 10% by weight based on the weight of the dough.

The weight ratio of egg white to oil in the coating mixture may be from10:90 to 90:10 preferably from 20:80 to 80:20 and especially from 40:60to 60:40.

The egg white and edible oil mixture is conveniently in liquid form andmay be coated onto the dough by spraying or soaking. The egg white maybe fresh or pasteurised.

A powdered egg white may be used but it should be rehydrated with waterbefore mixing with oil.

The edible oil may be an animal or vegetable oil, for example, corn oil,cottonseed oil, soy bean oil. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils mayalso be used.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In a first embodiment of the invention, a dough sheet is partiallycooked or precooked, coated with a mixture of egg white duct and edibleoil, pre-dried at a temperature of 80° to 200° C. for a period of from20 to 0.5 minutes, to coagulate, dry and bind the coating, slit and cutinto pasta shapes and then partially dried to a moisture content of from2 to 60% water followed by retorting.

The cooking of the dough sheet may be carried out by boiling, steaming,extrusion cooking or GOUDA drum cooking. The pasta shapes may be, forinstance, noodle, fettuccine or linguine, etc. The partial drying of thepasta shapes may be carried out at a temperature from 95° to 110° C.over a period of from 5 to 15 minutes, preferably to a moisture contentof from 20% to 35%.

Before retorting, the pasta may be premixed with other solid ingredientsconventionally used in pastas and then filled into cans and sauced.

The retorting process may be carried out by stationary or rotarymethods. Rotary retorting may be carried out at a temperature from 110°to 150° C for a period of from 40 to 15 minutes, more usually from 30 to20 minutes in the liquid medium which may be, for instance, a sauce typesuch as tomato or a soup type such as chicken broth. The amount of doughin the liquid medium is preferably from 20 to 50% by weight based on thetotal weight.

In a second embodiment of the invention, an uncooked dough sheet is slitand cut into pastas shapes, dehydrated, coated with a mixture of eggwhite and edible oil and further dried at a temperature of from 80° to200° C. for a period of from 20 to 0.5 minutes to coagulate, dry andbind the coating. The pasta shapes may be noodle, fettuccine orlinguine, etc.

The dehydration of the uncooked pasta shapes is usually conducted inconditions of high humidity and relatively low temperature over longperiods of time, for example, 70-90% relative humidity at 40° to 60° C.for from 5 to 10 hours depending on the size and thickness of the pasta.

Preferably, the further drying of the coated pasta is carried out at atemperature of from 125° C. to 175° C. for a period of from 5 minutes to1 minute.

The pasta of the second embodiment of the invention may be prepared forconsumption by cooking in cold or warm water in a microwave oven.However, if desired, it may be retorted as for the pasta of the firstembodiment.

In a third embodiment of the present invention an uncooked dough isextruded or extrusion cooked into pasta shapes, dehydrated, coated witha mixture of egg white and edible oil, further dried at a temperature offrom 80° to 200° C. for a period of from 20 to 0.5 minutes to coagulate,dry and bind the coating followed by retorting. The pasta shapes may benoodles, spaghetti, rotini, elbow macaroni, etc.

The firmness of the retorted pasta of this invention is superior to thatof raw, blanched pasta. The firmness is also better than either oilcoated or egg white coated pasta. In addition, the firmness is betterthan using regular dried pasta (without coating), precooked or notprecooked.

The process of this invention is applicable to wheat and non-wheat pastaproducts e.g, rice, corn, etc. and, if desired, other materialsconventionally used in making pastas may be added to the flour e.g.,protein materials such as protein, whole egg, egg yolk, wheat gluten,soy flour or soy protein isolate, gums such as propylene glycol alginateor surfactants such as glyceryl monostearate.

EXAMPLES The following Examples further illustrate the presentinvention.

In these Examples, the moisture content was determined by usingCOMPUTRAC moisture testing equipment. The pasta firmness was measured byweighing out 100 grams of retorted pasta and recording the peak forcerequired to shear the pasta in an INSTRON Universal Testing Instrumentby using a Framer Shear Test attachment (kg/g).

EXAMPLE 1

An extruded dough sheet containing 5.5% whole egg solid was partiallycooked by water blanching at 95° C. for 1 minute, and then sprayed with14% of a 50:50 mixture of fresh egg white and edible oil, predried at95° C. for 10 minutes, cut into noodles 0.125 cm thick and dried furtherat 95° C. for 15 minutes to a moisture content of 25-30% H₂ O.

The partially dried pasta was premixed with flavouring, spices andgarnish ingredients, filled into cans and chicken broth sauce was addedso that the amount of pasta was 30%. The pasta was retorted at 125° C.for 20 minutes in a rotary steriliser.

The retorted pasta's firmness was 0.180 kg/g and the moisture contentwas 75%. It had a good appearance. In comparison a retorted wet/blanchedpasta having the same egg content but without coating had a firmness ofonly 0.095 kg/g and a moisture content of 83%.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES A TO G

Retorted pastas were prepared in a similar manner to that described inExample 1 except that the coatings were different. The results are givenin Table I below.

                                      TABLE I                                     __________________________________________________________________________                  Retorted pasta's                                                                      Retorted pasta's                                                                      Retorted pasta's                                Example                                                                            Coating  Firmness kg/g                                                                         Moisture                                                                              Appearance                                      __________________________________________________________________________    A    None     0.090   84%     Good                                            B    egg white/water                                                                        0.095   83%     Good                                            C    oil      0.090   82%     Good                                            D    egg white                                                                              0.102   80%     Good                                            E    egg yolk/oil                                                                           0.125   80%     Brownish and                                    F    whole egg                                                                              0.150   79%     too much solid                                  G    whole egg/oil                                                                          0.165   79%     on surface                                      __________________________________________________________________________

From the above results it can be seem that the pasta of the presentinvention prepared in accordance with Example 1 has a superior firmnessand absorbs less moisture than any of the comparison pastas. Inaddition, its appearance is superior to the pastas of comparativeExamples E, F and G.

EXAMPLE 2

A dough was formulated from 70.70% Durum wheat flour, 17.30% whole eggliquid and 12.00% water and extruded into a sheet 0.125 cm thick. Thedough sheet was cooked with saturated steam in a steam tunnel at atemperature of 95° C. for 100 seconds, then coated with 10% of a 50:50mixture of corn oil and fresh egg white and dried at 102° C. for 8minutes to a moisture content of 24%. The dried pasta was cut intonoodle form which were mixed with twice their weight of a pumpable saucehaving the following ingredients:

    ______________________________________                                               water   93.00%                                                                corn oil                                                                              3.80%                                                                 salt    1.88%                                                                 Guar gum                                                                              0.60%                                                                 CMC gum 0.30%                                                                 Dextrose                                                                              0.20%                                                                 Lecithin                                                                              0.20%                                                                 Nutmeg  0.02%                                                          ______________________________________                                    

The mixture was then retorted at 121° C. for 21 minutes. The noodles hada good texture, were not sticky, the pasta samples could be separatedeasily and had a firm texture.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE H

The dough sheet of Example 2 was cut into noodle form, cooked bysuper-heated steaming and dried to a moisture content of 24% beforebeing further steam blanched, and finally mixed with the sauce andretorted as in Example 2. The noodles obtained were sticky and had apoor texture.

EXAMPLE 3

An uncooked pasta dough sheet was slit and cut into noodle shapes anddehydrated at 50° C and 85% relative humidity over 6 hours. The noodlehaving a thickness of 0.075 cms and moisture content of 10% was coatedwith 8% of a 50:50 mixture of fresh egg white and corn oil and heated at150° C. for 15 minutes. 50 parts of this coated pasta were added to 250parts of cold water and cooked in a microwave oven at high power for 8minutes The water remained clear and the cooked pasta was firm.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE I An uncoated unheated pasta was cooked in amicrowave oven as in Example 3. The cooked pasta was soft and sticky andthe water was cloudy. EXAMPLES 4 AND 5

An uncooked pasta dough sheet prepared from a flour containing glycerylmonostearate was slit and cut into noodle shapes and dehydrated at 50°C., and 80% humidity over 7 hours. Two dehydrated noodle productscontaining glyceryl monostearate prepared as above having a thickness of0.14 cms and moisture content of 10% were coated with 12% of a 50:50mixture of fresh egg white and corn oil, heated at 150° C. for 1 minuteand mixed with a sauce in an amount of 40 parts noodle to 100 partssauce. The sauced noodle of Example 4 was immediately retorted while thesauced noodle of Example 5 was soaked for 30 minutes before retorting.Retorting was carried out in a rotary retort at 125° C. for 21 minutesBoth pastas were firm, not sticky and had a good shape.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES J AND K

Two noodle products similar to those used in Examples 4 and 5 weretreated in a similar manner except that they were not coated and heated.Both pastas were softer and more sticky than those of Examples 4 and 5while the pasta which was soaked for 30 minutes in the sauce (J) wassofter and more sticky than the pasta which was not soaked in the sauce(K).

EXAMPLES 6 TO 9

An uncooked pasta dough sheet was slit and cut into noodle shapes anddehydrated at 55° C. and 80% humidity over 8 hours to a moisture contentof 10%. Four dehydrated noodle products having a thickness of 0.15 cmsprepared as above were coated with 10% of a 50:50 mixture of egg whiteand corn oil, two using fresh egg (Examples 6 and 7) and two usingpasteurised refrigerated egg white (Examples 8 and 9), and all wereheated at 150° C. for 2 minutes and then mixed with sauce in a ratio of50 parts noodle to 100 parts sauce. The sauced noodles of Examples 6 and8 were immediately retorted while those of Examples 7 and 9 were soakedin the sauce for 30 minutes before retorting being carried out in arotary retort at 125° C. for 21 minutes. The results are given in TableII below:

                  TABLE II                                                        ______________________________________                                        Example    6        7         8      9                                        ______________________________________                                        Soaking    no       yes       no     yes                                      Pasta stickiness                                                                         not sticky                                                                             not sticky                                                                              not sticky                                                                           not sticky                               Pasta firmness                                                                           very firm                                                                              firm      very firm                                                                            firm                                     ______________________________________                                    

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES L AND M

A similar procedure to that carried out for Examples 6 to 9 was followedon two uncooked dehydrated noodle products which were uncoated one ofwhich was retorted immediately and the other soaked for 30 minutesbefore retorting. The results are given in Table III below:

                  TABLE III                                                       ______________________________________                                        Example      L             M                                                  ______________________________________                                        Soaking      no            yes                                                Pasta stickiness                                                                           sticky        sticky, pasty                                      Pasta Firmness                                                                             softer than   softer than L and                                               Example 6 or 8                                                                              Examples 6 to 9                                    ______________________________________                                    

The results of Examples 6 to 9 and Comparative examples L and M indicatethat coated thick pasta can withstand prolonged soaking in sauce.

EXAMPLE 10

An uncooked dough was extruded into a rotini pasta and dehydrated at 55°C. and 80% humidity over 6 hours to a moisture content of 10%. Thesepastas were coated with 10% of a 50:50 mixture of egg white and cornoil, and heated at 150° C. for 2 minutes. The water absorption of thiscoated pasta was measured by soaking 10 g of the pasta in 200 ml waterfor 90 minutes, then weighing out the soaked weight. The soaked pastaweighed 15.5 g and remained firm.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLES N, O, P AND Q

The rotini pastas used in Example 10 were treated in the followingconditions;

N=No coating or heating

O=No coating but heated at 150° C. for 1 min.

P=Coated with only corn oil and heated at 150° C. for 1 min.

Q=Coated with only egg white and heated at 150° C. for 2 min.

10 g of each pasta was soaked in 200 ml water for 90 minutes, thenweighed out. The weights and firmness of the soaked pastas were asfollows;

N=19.4 g, soft

O=17.6 g, soft

P=16.6 g, not as firm as Example 10 sample

Q=19.0 g, soft

The results of Example 10 and comparative Examples N, O, P and Qindicated that egg white/oil coated pasta can inhibit water absorptionbetter than 1) uncoated/unheated, 2) heated, 3) oil coated/heated, 4)egg white coated/heated, or pastas. These results also indicate that thecoated pastas of Example 10 would have a more firm pasta texture afterretorting than the pastas of comparative Examples N, O, P and Q.

We claim:
 1. A process for the preparation of pasta comprising forming apasta dough, mixing egg white in liquid form with an edible oil, coatingthe dough with the egg white and oil mixture and then heating the coateddough to coagulate, dry and bind the coating mixture to the dough.
 2. Aprocess according to claim 1 further comprising at least partiallydrying the coated dough.
 3. A process according to claim 1 wherein thepasta dough is selected from a group of doughs consisting of uncookeddough and at least partially cooked dough and further comprisingretorting the coated dough.
 4. A process according to claim 1 whereinthe dough is a dough sheet which is at least partially cooked andwherein the coated dough is heated at a temperature of from 80° C. to200° C. for from 20 minutes to 0.5 minutes and further comprisingcutting the coated dough into pasta shapes, drying the pasta shapes to amoisture content of from 2% water to 60% water and then retorting thedried pasta shapes.
 5. A process according to claim 4 wherein the pastashapes are dried at a temperature of from 95° C. to 110° C. from 5minutes to 15 minutes to a moisture content of from 20% to 30% water. 6.A process according to claim 3 wherein the coated dough is in a liquidmedium and the retorting is carried out by rotary retorting at atemperature of from 110° C. to 150° C. for a period of time of from 40minutes to 15 minutes.
 7. A process according to claim 1 wherein thedough is uncooked dehydrated dough in a form of pasta shapes which thenare coated with the mixture and wherein the coated pasta shapes areheated at a temperature from 80° C. to 200° C. for from 20 minutes to0.5 minutes.
 8. A process according to claim 7 wherein the coated pastashapes are heated at a temperature from 125° C. to 175° C. for from 5minutes to 1 minute.
 9. A process according to claim 7 wherein theuncooked dough has been dehydrated at 70% to 90% relative humidity andat a temperature of from 40° C. to ° C. for a period of time of from 5hours to 10 hours.
 10. A process according to claim 1 wherein the pastadough is selected from the group of pasta doughs consisting of uncookeddough and at least partially cooked dough.
 11. A process according toclaim 1 wherein the pasta dough is in a form selected from the group offorms consisting of a dough sheet and a pasta shape.
 12. A processaccording to claim 1 wherein the egg white is in a ratio by weight toedible oil of from 10:90 to 90:10.
 13. A process according to claim 1wherein the coated pasted coating contains the egg white and edible oilin an amount of from 3% to 15% by weight based on the weight of thedough.
 14. The product of the process of claim 1 or
 3. 15. A processaccording to claim 4 or 5 wherein the dried pasta shapes are in a liquidmedium and the retorting is carried out by rotary retorting at atemperature of from 110° C. to 150° C. for a period of time of from 40minutes to 15 minutes.